Biblical women in early modern literary culture, 1550–1700

Victoria Brownlee, Laura Gallagher, Laura Gallagher, Victoria Brownlee, Laura Gallagher

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780719091551
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526110626
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Russian History
• Index: Literature

At once pervasive and marginal, appealing and repellent, exemplary and atypical, the women of the Bible provoke an assortment of readings across early modern literature. Biblical women in early modern literary culture, 1550–1700 draws attention to the complex ways in which biblical women's narratives could be reimagined for a variety of rhetorical and religious purposes.

Considering a confessionally diverse range of writers, working across a variety of genres, this volume reveals how women from the Old and New Testaments exhibit an ideological power that frequently exceeds, both in scope and substance, their associated scriptural records. The essays explore how the Bible's women are fluidly negotiated and diversely redeployed to offer (conflicting) comment on issues including female authority, speech and sexuality, and in discussions of doctrine, confessional politics, exploration and grief. As it explores the rich ideological currency of the Bible's women in early modern culture, this volume demonstrates that the Bible's women are persistently difficult to evade.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction: Discovering biblical women in early modern literary culture, 1550–1700
• Part I: Women and feminine archetypes of the Old Testament
• Part II: Women and feminine archetypes of the New Testament
• Index